Title: Unfriended
Universal
Director: Levan Gabriadze
Writer: Nelson Greaves
Cast: Heather Sossaman, Matthew Bohrer, Courtney Halverson, Moses Storm, Renee Olstead, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki
Running Time: 83min , Rated R (Violence, Language, Mild Sexuality)
Special Features: NONE
On DVD, BluRay and Digital Download on July 28th
It is the one year anniversary when teenager Blaire Lily (Shelley Hennig of Teen Wolf) killed herself and it was all caught on video and uploaded to the internet. The reason behind her suicide has been linked to another video that was uploaded prior that caused her to be the ridicule of the entire school. A group of friends- Laura (Heather Sossaman) , Mitch (Moses Storm), Ken (Jacob Wysocki of Fat Kid Rules the World), Adam (Will Peltz), and Jess (Renee Olstead of The Secret Life of the American Teenager) whom are planning a get together are all up on Skype, trading stories and jokes, while an anonymous person appears to be joined in their group conversation but will not reveal themselves. This anonymous person knows them all very well, and has hacked into all of their Facebook accounts to upload humiliating pictures to their walls, while each is denying they are the culprit. This person named Billie causes the first friend/victim Val (Courtney Halverson of season 2 of True Detective) to kill herself as her friends watch in horror. This Billie tells all of them that the first person to disconnect will die. They all come to the conclusion being that this mystery killer is the vengeful ghost of Blaire and fruitlessly repent for any wrongdoing they did before her suicide. When forced to play a game of “Never Have I Ever,” reveals secrets that make them all turn on each other and want to hang up, but Billie reminds and shows them what happens if they do. As the body count rises, who will be revealed as Blaire’s true friend?
The Good: I liked the concept of taking place completely on the computer. It was a fresh idea which is why I think there was so much hype about this film.
The Bad: They might as well have called this Facebook:The Horror Movie. A poltergeist hacker? That’s almost as lame as the utterly ridiculous Pulse (the one with Kristen Bell, I didn’t see the Japanese original). The apparent ghost of Blaire killed herself because someone filmed her getting shitfaced and then shitting her pants as she lay passed out. That has to be the dumbest reason for one to commit suicide. Is that the worst thing that could ever happen to a teenage girl? I’m an adult and I’ve shit myself more than I’d like to admit and guess what kids, it only gets worse as we get older; I’m still here. She could’ve transferred schools or got her GED and cancelled Facebook if she didn’t want to see these people again.
Why the hell did Ken the fat kid have a blender in his bedroom? Was blending his hand the best thing they could come up with to brutalize him before dying?
Though the concept was clever, seeing each character as they go though their ordeal in a tiny Skype window got irritating. Most of the action needed a bigger picture. A knife in the eye and a curling iron down the throat were laughable in a little video square.
There are absolutely no special features on this disc. Lame!
The screenshots of Laura crying and looking terrified was some good advertising tactic; hell it worked for The Blair Witch Project. Just like The Blair Witch Project, this film was a complete disappointment; I felt duped. It was a great premise, but the problem with this is that the niche is gone. You can’t recreate this for sequels because the audience isn’t going to want to watch a film through a cluttered laptop screen again. I watched this film with my 15 year old stepdaughter to whom this film is geared toward and she was quite disappointed as well. “I was hoping it was going to be a little bit scary, but it wasn’t at all.”
Acting: B
Story: C
Technical: A
Total Rating: C+
Reviewed by: JM Willis
